Ice Cream
by Eaglesgirl
Summary: Jemma tries to cheer up Fitz and Skye post "Nothing Personal"


Ode to the Death of the Fitz/Ward Bromance

I own nothing. I bow down to the greatness that is the creative team of M:AOS.

* * *

It was hard to swallow the reality of Ward's betrayal.

Jemma surveyed her team as they sat around the hotel pool deck. They looked like the people she saw on those documentaries where a flood or tornado or hurricane had destroyed a town and the denizens came back to nothing. She reached out and put her hand on Fitz's knee, just to anchor herself, to make sure he was really there.

They were all safe, Jemma had to keep reminding herself. Coulson had rescued Skye and both had escaped the bus safely. Agent Triplett sat in a chair nearby in perfect health. And Fitz sat next to her, exhausted and upset, but warm and alive and with her.

Coulson disappeared into one of the hotel rooms they were renting and silence spread among the remaining agents. Skye, after a while joined the pair at the pool and put her feet in too, staring quietly for some time at the ripples on the water whenever someone moved.

Skye shifted and this seemed to speak to Fitz, Jemma observed, because he reached over, wrapping an arm around Skye's back and silently urged her closer. Skye relaxed into the engineer. "I punched him," she whispered. "I punched him a lot." Fitz gave a strained half smile and pulled Skye a little closer. She buried her face in Fitz's shoulder and didn't quite manage to suppress a sniffle.

Simmons, her hand still lightly resting on Fitz knee for her own comfort more than his, felt useless as she looked at her friends. As much as she had been friends with Ward and had been thankful to him for his rescue, her relationship paled in comparison to the two next to her. Fitz was reserved and trusted precious few people; Ward, Jemma knew, had gained a level of trust and admiration that only two others, her and Agent Coulson, had ever achieved. His anger, as indicated by his earlier outburst and the tension she could feel radiating off of him, was far from spent. He was trying to bottle everything up, but was only succeeding in oscillating between intense seething, depressed sadness, and spiteful self-loathing that he hadn't caught Ward's duplicity earlier.

Jemma and Skye had enjoyed many popcorn and Disney movie fueled evenings that eventually turned into midnight chats centered around Skye's feelings for Ward. She loved him, yes, but it was deeper than that. Skye had spent the most time with Ward. He was more than her SO; he had given her all the things she had lacked growing up without a family. He had been the main person to encourage her strength and independence and had given Skye stability and a quiet, steady love to fall back on. More important than perhaps anything else, he had looked out for her, made her not alone; much like Fitz did for Jemma. Had the tables been turned and Fitz been the traitor, Jemma would have lost every piece of herself to her anger and grief; she was glad Skye seemed to be holding herself together somewhat better than that.

Jemma couldn't fix this, she knew that, but she needed to do something to lift this oppressive stasis that had settled over her two friends in particular. Tomorrow morning, the sun would come up and the world would still need saving. They needed to be ready and they needed to have something to hold on to that wasn't hate, anger, or desperation.

So Jemma thought very hard. What does one do when they are betrayed by the person they trust most? Jemma had never been in that position so she tried to grasp for something similar.

Then it hit her. Kevin. Kevin had been the boy her roommate had briefly dated during her first year of university. The experience had been short, but Tammy had felt awful at the end, not because she loved him per say, but because it had been so nice to matter to someone. After three days of moping around, her Jemma and a few of their hall-mates had pushed her in front of the TV with a gallon of ice cream and all the sappy chick flicks the girls could find. Seventeen hours and four gallons of ice cream later and Jemma felt she had sufficiently convinced the girl that there was something better waiting for her somewhere.

This situation was not the same… nowhere close. Her analogy between experiences was tenuous at best, but it would have to do. And ice cream did sound like something that would please both Fitz and Skye.

Jemma knew better than to go out to the store by herself with all the danger that was following them and considered dragging Tripp along for a moment before discarding the idea. Tripp needed to watch over Fitz and Skye who seem oblivious to everything at the moment. It would have to be Coulson she would drag along then.

Jemma left the pool and shot a smile towards Tripp before heading towards the team's rooms. She entered the room to find Coulson staring blankly at the screensaver on a laptop and Agent May sitting nearby.

"Simmons."

"Agent May. Is Agent Coulson okay?"

"He'll be okay. He just got some… unexpected news that he just needs some time to take it in." May shot him a worried smile. "How is the team?"

"Tripp seems alright. Skye and Fitz are struggling to say the least. I actually came up to talk to Coulson because I might have a way to distract them for a little while, but I need a partner to go to the store with."

"I'll bring you." May said. "Coulson needs some time and I have a car that's not owned by SHEILD."

Simmons filled May in on her idea on the way to the store. May laughed. "That's a wonderful idea!"

One box of plastic spoons and six gallons of assorted ice creams later (three for May's room), they were back in the car and on their way to the hotel.

Fitz and Skye were exactly where she had left them, though their embrace had loosened a bit and they were talking back and forth. It sounded like they had both left distraught and were back to anger again. Simmons was able to catch something only "… bastard claimed he loved me" from the red faced Skye as she approached.

"I have something for the two of you. Come on." Neither argued as they broke apart and followed her back up to their hotel room. "Ice cream." She said proudly, showing them the three gallons lined up on the dresser. "And we'll find a movie on TV to watch."

Skye couldn't help a smile. "You… this is like post-breakup. This is perfect. Ohh… Death by Chocolate!" Skye snatched up the container and sat herself on the bed in front of the TV.

Fitz glanced dubiously towards the TV, "as long as we don't have to watch something awful, like _The Notebook_." Fitz took the gallon of chocolate and settled himself while Jemma took the mint chocolate chip.

In the end, the reception on the TV was awful and the only movie they could find was a slightly grainy _Ghostbusters_ marathon, which all three were more than happy to laugh along with while they stole spoonfuls of ice cream from each other.

* * *

Coulson couldn't help but take a picture of the trio when he entered their room the next morning. All three slept in the same bed. Skye slept spread out like a starfish with her right arm lying across Fitz's face. Fitz slept on his side, facing Skye and was being spooned by Simmons who slept precariously on the edge of the mattress and seemed to be holding onto him to stay on the bed. It was Tripp's laughter that woke the three and sent Simmons flailing on the floor.

They moved slowly that morning between their late night and the stomach aches from the ice cream, but all three somehow felt a little better. Skye and Fitz might have lost Ward, but they had Jemma and they had each other. There were many trials to come with Hydra and Ward's abandonment, but remembering that night and that they were never alone made the bumps a little smoother.


End file.
